With the increased interest in various sports, more and more of the traditional spring or summer sports are being undertaken during the colder fall and winter months. This calls for additional equipment, such as warm clothing, and especially gloves for protecting the hands while allowing participation in the sporting activity. A specific example is cold-weather fly fishing which requires the pulling of a wet line through the fingers when retrieving fly fishing line after a cast. In such a case, it is highly advantageous to use a pair of gloves which expose, and therefore provide sensitivity to, the thumb and index finger while keeping the remaining part of the hand covered and therefore warm. Similar requirements are found in hunting, kayaking, mountain climbing and other sports or commercial activities where certain fingers need to be used and therefore exposed.
Unfortunately, the prior art gloves while exposing some of the fingers do not provide an adequate sealing mechanism to prevent cold air or cold water intrusion into the glove through the area of the glove between the wearer's exposed finger and the cut-off finger of the glove. Examples of such prior art gloves are disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 632,547 to Barth; 1,215,163 to Johnson; 3,582,992 to Gold; 4,131,952 to Brenning, Jr.; 4,164,043 to Fujita; and 4,183,100 to De Marco.